Hydrodynamic and Electrochemical Analysis of Compression and Flow Field Designs in Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries

Snigdha Saha, Kranthi Kumar Maniam, Shiladitya Paul and Venkata Suresh Patnaikuni ()
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Snigdha Saha: Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal 506004, Telangana, India
Kranthi Kumar Maniam: Materials Innovation Centre, School of Engineering, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Shiladitya Paul: Materials Innovation Centre, School of Engineering, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
Venkata Suresh Patnaikuni: Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal 506004, Telangana, India

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 17, 1-33

Abstract: This numerical study investigates compression and flow field design effects on electrode behaviour in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). Through 3D simulations and analysis of various flow field designs, including conventional, serpentine, interdigitated, and parallel configurations, this study investigates three compression scenarios: uncompressed, non-homogeneously compressed, and homogeneously compressed electrodes. Hydrodynamic and electrochemical analyses reveal the impact on velocity, pressure, current density, overpotential, and charge–discharge performance. Interdigitated flow field is found to display the lowest charging potential and highest discharging potential among all flow fields under all three compression scenarios. Moreover, uncompressed electrode condition shows the conservative estimates of an average charging potential of 1.3647 V and average discharging potential of 1.3231 V in the case of interdigitated flow field, while compressed electrode condition and the non-homogeneously compressed electrode condition show an average charging potential of 1.3922 V and 1.3777 V, and an average discharging potential of 1.3019 V and 1.3224 V, respectively. Results highlight the significance of non-uniform compression while modelling and analysing the performance of VRFBs as it is a more realistic representation compared to the no-compression or homogeneous compression of the electrodes. The findings of this work provide insights for optimising VRFB performance by considering compression and flow field design.

Keywords: vanadium redox flow batteries; electrode compression; flow field design; 3D; conventional; serpentine; interdigitated; parallel flow field; COMSOL modelling; computational fluid dynamics; numerical simulations; multiphysics simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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